Another Sucker For A Game Kids Like to Play
by smellslikecorruption
Summary: "He kisses her at 2:53 pm, and he knows it's at 2:53, because he looks at the clock on her desk and thinks that time should just stop, because his world is never going to look the same."


**Title**: Another Sucker for a Game Kids Like to Play

**Setting**: Post-series, Casey and Derek are about halfway through their Junior year of college.

**Length**: ~930 words

**Rating**: pg-13

**Summary**: "He kisses her at 2:53 pm, and he knows it's 2:53, because he looks at the clock on her desk and thinks that time should just stop."

**AN:** Written for the prompt _go / how so very apropos / a goodbye just as soon as I said hello_

x

He kisses her at 2:53 pm, and he knows it's at 2:53, because he looks at the clock on her desk and thinks that time should just stop, because his world is never going to look the same, not anymore, not after 2:53, and really that minute in time deserves to last for a whole lot longer, if only to mark the occasion.

Time doesn't stop. The world doesn't stop. The clock doesn't stop.

He knows this, because at 2:54 pm, she says, "I'm going to France."

x

She says, "I'm going to France."

And he says, "I just kissed you."

And she cocks her head to the side, that way she does, and says, like she's all puzzled, "I know. What does that have to do with France?"

It has nothing at all to do with France, it wasn't even French kissing, it just seemed like the thing to say at the time.

And that's when the clock really does stop, but it's not because he kissed her, and it's not because she's going to France, and it's not because the world has somehow stopped turning.

It's because the power in her dormitory goes out.

She's blinking at him in the dim light filtering through her tiny window, and she says, "I should go find out what's going on."

He steps in front of her door and he wraps his hands around her shoulders and he holds her at arms length, and he says, "No."

He says, "Casey."

He says, "I _kissed_ you."

She squirms against his hands. Rolls her eyes.

Says, "And I kissed you back."

And his heart leaps a little, because she did, she _did_ kiss him back, and he knows her. Knows she wouldn't have kissed back if she hadn't wanted. Knows she never does anything he wants unless she wants it too.

There are things he should say here. Things about her and things about him and things about the two of them together. And things about their family too, probably, because they only have the one between them, and it includes a toddler that looks like them both, and this is all going to get really messy really fast if they don't talk about the things they should talk about.

But he's never been good at things he should or shouldn't do. He shouldn't, for example, have fallen in love with his stepsister.

So what he says is, "And then you told me you're going to France."

Which is when she shows him the packet from the study abroad program, complete with an official looking acceptance letter, and a start date that is a month away, and she tells him about how she'd been keeping it a secret in case they didn't want her, and he stops himself from telling her how crazy that is, because who in their right mind _wouldn't_ want her, crazy though she may be?

Then he remembers that he kissed her and she kissed him back and that means that he doesn't have to bite his tongue like this anymore, so he tells her,

"You might be insane, but anyone who doesn't want you is beyond help."

She's so surprised, she drops the papers back on her desk, but when she faces him again, her eyes are sparkling and she asks, "Are you suggesting there's a chance that you can avoid that padded cell a little longer?"

His heart is beating way too fast—not that he'll admit that, he isn't totally whipped yet—when he brushes the skin on the back of her hand and says, "More than a chance, actually."

And his voice is maybe, possibly, shaking a little when he says it.

But this time she's the one who kisses him, so it's not like anything else is all that important anyway.

x

They're still kissing when the power comes back on, and he has no idea how much time has passed, but there's less light coming through the window, and they're both on her bed, and at some point their shirts came off, and she is breathing hard against the hollow of his neck.

The fluorescent light startles him, and his fingers stop the trail they are making on her spine, and she raises her head to stare down and demand to know why he's stopping, and her hair is a mess and her skin is flushed and she is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen, hands down.

"France, huh? How long?" He asks.

She bites her lip, and when she lets go, he pulls her head down and bites it too, just because he can.

She laughs against his lips and murmurs, "All semester."

Behind her, he can see the clock on the desk, blinking 12:00 over and over, waiting to be reset.

"So if I write your 'welcome home' sign in French, will you be able to read it?"

She smiles so wide, that he's pretty sure it should look scary, but there's a chance that he's smiling like that too, so he probably shouldn't judge.

"Do _you_ know any French?"

He whispers the only complete sentence he knows in her ear, and she hits him on the arm and yells,

"Derek! That song's about a _hooker_!"

But she goes to bed with him anyway, so he counts it as a win.


End file.
